U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte, of the Western District of Texas, said that the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force was acting on a tip from U.S. marshals in Las Cruces that a fugitive they were looking for was at the apartment complex.

Almonte said when the task force officers tried to arrest the man, he drove his truck toward them in an attempt to hit them, causing two deputy U.S. marshals to open fire to defend themselves. The man died at the scene.

Officials did not say how many times Olivas was shot or the types of firearms used.

Almonte said Olivas was wanted in Las Cruces on felony warrants alleging assault of a household member and failure to appear in court on a charge of fraud/illegal use of a credit card. In El Paso, Olivas was wanted on a felony warrant charging credit card/debit card abuse and a misdemeanor warrant for burglary of a vehicle.

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"We believe he came to El Paso because he knew the marshals were looking for him in Las Cruces," Almonte said.

FBI spokesman Special Agent Michael Martinez said that the FBI is the lead agency in the shooting investigation, which is considered a case of assault on a federal officer.

Olivas' wife, Crystal Olivas, told Channel 14-KFOX that she and her 2-year-old daughter were getting into the truck with her husband when a car rushed up.

Family members of the man shot by U.S. marshals waited outside a westside apartment complex at 151 S. Resler. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

"They didn't say, 'We are the police, Juan, stop.' Nothing. They just shot him," Crystal Olivas said. "They approached up really fast. They just said 'Juan.' They called out his name and started shooting."

Crystal Olivas said that the deputies fired several times. "He reversed and took off. They kept shooting at him through the windshield. He didn't go so far," she said.

"I want to know why they did it that way and in front of my daughter," Crystal Olivas told KFOX. "They didn't care nothing. They still don't talk to me. What they did wasn't right, and I mean they put their version and it's going to be that way."

After the shooting, a white sheet covered the driver's side window of a red pickup with a camper that had hit a metal stairwell in a section sealed off by red crime-scene tape at the Casa Barranca apartments on South Resler Drive near North Mesa Street.

The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force is led by the U.S. Marshals Service and has members from several other law enforcement agencies.

After the shooting, U.S. marshal's deputies in body armor, uniformed El Paso police officers, sheriff's detectives and FBI agents were at the West Side scene.

Juan Olivas' relatives were also at the scene, upset, wiping away tears.

His mother-in-law Josefina Tinoco, of the Vado, N.M., area, said that her son-in-law had "his little problems" but that he was a good husband and father to the couple's three children. He worked odd jobs.

"The police does not see the good side of him. They would only see the bad," Josefina Tinoco said. "My daughter called me (after the shooting). She was very hysterical. She was yelling at them that it was not fair. They did not have a reason to have killed him."

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102. Follow him on Twitter @BorundaDaniel

Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117. Follow her on Twitter @AChavezEPTimes